Today’s brands have access to several digital marketing options. Influencer marketing and paid advertising are two of the more utilized. As online marketing is here to stay every brand needs to decide which online marketing opportunities will best meet the goals of their brand. Every brand must make the right marketing decisions to ensure its rightful place in today’s online marketplace.
The current influencer marketing vs traditional marketing discussion is necessary due to the existing and diverse shift in online marketing. Today’s consumers want to identify more with their favorite brands, making it essential for every brand to figure out which marketing tactic is better when it comes to building their business brand.
The trick is for each brand to understand which marketing options will best help them grow their business. As a result, many brands are trying to figure out which marketing option is better to develop their business – social media marketing influencers or Facebook Ads.
Influencers Vs Facebook Ads
Brands must carefully plan, coordinate, network, and budget to build their brand into what they envision it to be. The continual progress of social media marketing has made it so every brand must not only make the right marketing decisions, it must also learn any new marketing tactics in place. Brands must always keep on top of any new digital marketing options available as this allows them to adapt their marketing plan to the ever-changing world of online marketing.
Social media marketing influencers and Facebook Ads are both top marketing choices for the majority of today’s brands.
Each marketing option comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, making it necessary for every brand to thoroughly research each online marketing option. Understanding the details is key, as the specifics of each marketing option can potentially make or break a brand.
For example, utilizing the services of a professional social media influencer allows brands to share their content across multiple platforms. Brands that are considering Facebook Ads might be seen as more limited as their ads can only be seen on the Facebook platform. The bottom line for brands is that it really comes down to how they can best get their brand information in front of their target audience.
Social media influencers promote brands by adding posts and videos to their feed to inform and educate their followers. They are always full of new and exciting brand ideas, they know how to create the right type of content for their audience, and they understand what it takes to get their followers to engage. Influencers are especially beneficial for brands that need to reach niche audiences.
Brands must choose an influencer who easily fits in with their brand in order to best represent it to their audience.
Brands can choose from many different types of influencers, with micro influencers and macro influencers currently being two of the more popular choices. Industry-specific influencers are also an option.
Social Media Marketing Influencers
When influencers post sponsored ads they know how to post these types of advertisements authentically. Consumers react much more positively to authentic advertisements vs the standard traditional marketing ads that are so familiar. Social media users who choose to follow an influencer do so because they trust their opinion, making them more likely to take action.
Facebook Ads
Facebook places a large focus on making it easy for brands to reach their target audiences by using their Facebook Ads marketing option. Facebook’s targeted ads are made for detailed precision as the social media giant wants to ensure any ads created within their platform are shown to the right people. Facebook also offers great analytics, a simple and convenient way for brands to keep track of their marketing campaigns.
Facebook Ads help brands get more visibility as the platform has an advertising audience of 2.14 billion users. It is one of the more targeted forms of online marketing available to help brands increase their awareness. Additional benefits include increasing website traffic, increasing revenue, increasing leads, and the ability to straightforwardly measure results, i.e. impressions, clicks, conversions.
Facebook makes it easy for brands to alter their ads and includes a way to adjust their budget. Brands can use the scaling up and scaling down feature to learn the details regarding how much they spend and what they can expect their outreach results to be. Brands that have any questions about utilizing Facebook Ads can contact Facebook’s support team, which includes live chat.
What’s Better To Develop Your Business?
When it comes down to which marketing option is best for helping a brand grow it is up to each individual brand to make the decision. Many of today’s brands are choosing to combine digital marketing options, meaning they will use both social media marketing influencers and Facebook Ads to improve and expand their business.
Facebook Ads
Brands choosing Facebook Ads must understand they are choosing a marketing option that is based on Facebook’s algorithm, as this is what decides who sees the Ads while they are on Facebook’s platform. While Facebook has the potential to post ads better seen by large numbers of people, there is a possibility that many people will not see it if they do not scroll down far enough in their feed. Even so, Facebook Ads still have the potential to reach new audiences, even in places where influencers do not have access.
Facebook Ads tend to be an extremely efficient marketing choice. Facebook Ads results are monitored in real-time, which allows brands to quickly understand just how well their marketing ads are performing. Examples of immediate learned information include clickthrough rates, revenue, amount of sales, and overall return on investment.
Social Media Marketing Influencers
Social media influencers promote brand products using organic and non-intrusive marketing methods. They understand that today’s consumers want to learn about a particular product and/or service before making an actual purchasing decision. In turn, they know how to efficiently engage with their followers, educating them and answering their questions so they can make the right decision.
Brands choosing to connect with one or more marketing influencers should understand that influencers have greater control when it comes to targeting their niche audience. Influencers also know how to create the authentic content their followers expect to see, making it so many followers view their influencer as somewhat of a celebrity.
Making The Right Choice
Brands must determine whether employing one or more social media marketers to increase their brand awareness is the right choice or if signing up for a Facebook business account is the better choice. As so many brands are currently deciding which digital marketing option is better to develop their business, the answer is it simply depends on a brand’s objectives.
Top brand objectives include defining a target audience, creating measurable goals, increasing audience awareness, creating credibility, and establishing brand loyalty. Once a brand has established its marketing goals it must then create a brand strategy. Within this brand strategy will include the details of how the brand is going to build its brand awareness. Identifying and defining a target audience is key for choosing the best marketing methods.
Brands must fully understand their target audience as this is what helps them determine which social media platforms they should integrate into their brand strategy. Creating a detailed audience profile allows brands to choose the marketing platforms that include a large percentage of their target audience demographics. Once a brand determines its target audience it then needs to define its audience goals, i.e. brand recognition, leads, sales.
Once a brand determines its audience profile and audience goals it must now find its audience. Brands must look at each social media marketing platform to learn more about its audience demographics. While viewing demographics brands should also consider the engagement rate for each platform they are considering using to market their brand.
Brands choosing to integrate both digital marketing strategies into their marketing plans can expect many benefits if done correctly. There are a few different ways for brands to combine Facebook Ads with social media influencers, with repurposing influencer-created content into Facebook Ads and whitelisting being two of the more commonly used combination marketing tactics.
Conclusion
Brands must decide whether employing social media marketing influencers or utilizing Facebook Ads is best for improving or expanding their brand awareness reach. The goal is more exposure, making it so brands must choose the marketing option that takes their brand in the right direction. While brands want large audience exposure, they must choose the appropriate marketing options to get their brand in front of the right audience.
Social media marketing influencers tend to be ideal for building brand awareness, converting engagements, and taking action. Even so, traditional marketing is far from over as proven by many brands who are generating a strong return on investment by using Facebook Ads.
Each digital marketing option comes with its own advantages. Influencers are authentic and enjoy directly engaging with their audiences. Facebook Ads makes it easy for brands to track the success of their brand ads. Both marketing opportunities have the potential to reach millions of online consumers.
